This is my first time using IPUMS and I have neither SAS, STATA nor SPSS. I have GRETL and would like to know how I may go about downloading the dataset that I have extracted for use in my other program. Or just how to open it in Excel, for starters.
Thank you.
The primary data document delivered by IPUMS is a fixed-width text file containing each observation as a single row and each variable as a set of columns. You can use the STATA, SPSS, or SAS (whichever makes the most sense to you) as a guide for column locations and widths and their associated variable names. Using this information with the --cols option in gretl should allow you to read in the data accurately.
Also, I believe gretl is able to read STATA and SPSS files. You can download the extract as an SPSS or STATA data file by changing the the Data Format on the Extract Request page from “Default (fixed-width text)” to your preferred format. One of the options is also a comma delimited format (.csv) which can be read into excel as well as gretl.
If you are at all nervous that the data was not read in correctly, you can check frequencies of individual variables from single samples using the “case-count view” under the codes tab of most variables.
I hope this helps.
Thank you Joe for your reply.
I have formatted my data extract to CSV. Can you (or any one else) direct me as to how I may read this into excel or Gretl please?
Both Excel and Gretl nativly open CSV files. In Excel, you can just open the file from the “Open” menu. Similarly, in Gretl you can open a CSV file by going through the “File->Open Data->Import->CSV…”
I hope this helps.
I keep coming back with the same issue, sorry. I have tried numerous times opening my data in either Excel or GRETL but I have had no luck. Is there something specific I need to do from my extraction page to actually opening it into either of these programs?
Thanks
The first thing to do is make sure you have properly decompressed the data file using a program like 7-zip (which is free).